


Amphisibaena

by taichara



Category: Final Fantasy IV
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-24
Updated: 2014-06-24
Packaged: 2018-02-06 01:54:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1840027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taichara/pseuds/taichara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During his own Trial in the depths of the Lunar Ruins, Kain receives more than he bargained for.</p>
<p>It all has to come out eventually.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Amphisibaena

_It chews on your heart and poisons your soul, doesn’t it?_

 The voice, low and heart-close, echoed relentlessly through Kain’s mind more than it purred in his ears; wild-eyed and wary, he stalked a scant three paces deeper into the cavernous chamber of silky glass mirrors.

This was _not_ Mysidia –-

  _Look at him!_

 In the span of a breath Cecil appeared, moon-pale hair disheveled from the witchling transport of the Devil’s Road ...

... or Rosa’s caress.

But he turned and faced away from Kain, did not meet the eyes of the dragon knight …

  _What has he not taken from you, Gareth’s son?_

_Rootless, without name nor rank nor kin!  
Yet the King’s favour fell all around him._

_One of the shadow-souled upstarts; one of the Red Wings that eclipsed the Dragon Knights and caused your Order’s fall from grace, the drakes dead of neglect!_

 “Enough.”

 Breath came heavily now; strands of sunlight hair slipping and falling into his eyes,  
Kain lowered his lance in silent threat at the unknown voice, his steps chiming hollowly on the chill glass.

Cecil did not acknowledge him.

  _But it is not enough, is it, Gareth’s son?_

_He has taken all from you –- place, pride, that of your bloodline and your knighthood –-_

 … as Cecil stands silent; his reflection in the silvered crystal showing him in _her_ embrace …

  _He has taken it all._

_The foundling is not even human!_

_And you rightfully wish him gone still, the stain on your honour erased forever._

_Come, Kain!_

_Strike!!_

 “ **No --** ”

 Refusing to bend, spirit burning, refusing to bow his head to this desire that lurked,  
Kain snarled defiance at his unseen tormentor.

Cecil shattered into mirror-bright motes, a phantasm –-

Kain had but a moment to jerk backwards before his own dark twin, armour stained a dark and bloody violet, strode from the shining glass with a death-keen scarlet spear aimed at his throat.

Without thought he brought his own pearl-bladed lance to bear, punching through the bruise-dark armour and biting into flesh beneath –-

And then, then he saw his twinshadow’s eyes beneath the dragon’s jaw; felt the white-cold burning of dead and empty hate they bore.

 ‘No.’

“ _Finish_ it, then!”

 The shadow’s next strike he met head on; a bone-jarring _crash_ as blood-black entangled with silver-pearl, the lances twisted about as Kain parried the lunge –-

Back, back and again. Twist now, turn, move with a dragon’s grace …

No longer did he strike, but accepted the blows instead; some countered by graceful pearl as he parried them aside, some brushed past and ignored, to bite through his storm-coloured carapace and spill his blood across the glassy glittering tile.

Kain no longer cared.

Let _his_ dishonor be cleansed, at last, by the pooling crimson of his life.

… Flicker of scarlet blade, then, and another; and then –- as he lifted the weight of his own blessed weapon, sidestepped in instinct –-

The too-familiar rush of air, the whistling of wind through crests and drake-fang helm  
as his twin took to the air and plummeted upon him,  
lanced a fatal thrust towards his unworthy heart

The soul-drinking point bit through his blood-washed breastplate,  
pierced flesh and sought his life –-

And then was gone.

Choking on bloody froth, Kain crumpled to one knee, his lance now a crutch for his weakness.  
Somehow, somehow he mustered a faint, bitter smile –-

  _A fitting purge of pride._

 Jerking his head up, he saw the beating of great wings  
And scales of moonsilver washed with the midnight and indigo of his own knight’s armour.

The shadow of the Dragon King himself descended upon him, haloed in palest flame.

  _Now, prove yourself to me --!_  



End file.
